FaceIt Kicks Off New Office In Santa Monica After Raising $15 Million

FaceIt, a virtual matchmaking website, has managed to generate $15 million through venture capitalists according to a new report. For those who do not know, FaceIt helps players find other teammates and opponents in many PC games such as Valve’s Counter Strike and Blizzard’s Dota 2.

According to recent reports, FaceIt has been able to secure a $15 million investment from venture capitalist firms Anthos Capital, Index Ventures and United ventures. The reports mention that the announcement came in via FaceIt themselves and the company’s Chief Executive, Niccolo Maisto also announced that they have planned to open a new office in Santa Monica later this month and that they are planning to hire a few people by the year end.

Mr. Maisto also said that the raised cash is going to be used to make FaceIt even more accessible than before and is going to help it grow into a much bigger place for players, advertisers and other competition hosts. The current scenario at FaceIt offers the basic matchmaking tools free to all players and charges $3 per month if players want to access more of the premium features which help them join higher rated matches in order to get better statistics.

In order to spark player engagement, the platform also offers virtual coins for achievements on the service and these coins can be exchanged for different perks, accessories and other merchandise. In order to find their way through FaceIt, a player must install the company’s software on their computer in order to sync teams and matches and as I mentioned before, most of the features are free to use. Mr. Maisto said that many competition hosts and game developers have been wanting to join hands with FaceIt since the matchmaking features offered by the software spark more interest in any game. He also said that FaceIt generates “millions of dollars” in revenue every month and expects to see a growth rate of at least 15 to 20% per month. Most of the revenue comes in from advertisements and sponsorships and while the company does host some gaming tournaments, most of its proprietary tools are not used by many hosts.

FaceIt, however has had a somewhat controversial position of late, especially in Dota 2 where it seems to be the target of widespread criticism surrounding the current state of matchmaking citing that it did little to balance users based on actual experience and skill based on in-game metric, Match Making Rating (MMR). Users could expect to see themselves outclassed heavily in various matches due to skill differences as well as playing against 5 member stacks in a game that considers teamplay a very important trait. The fact that the professional DotA 2 crowd has more or less abandoned the platform as a benchmark might speak unfavourable volumes about its limitations with the particular game, even as it continues to attract more players from the CS:GO universe.

This is a developing story; ESportsNext will attempt to cover any further progress regarding FaceIt in the near future.